The present invention relates, in general, to the field of elongate workpiece handlers and methods for uniformly orienting individual ones of a plurality of the workpieces in accordance with a specific cross-sectional aspect thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated circuit sleeve handler and method for orienting and presenting integrated circuit sleeves to subsequent testing, or marking or other machinery in which a sleeve feed is used.
Presently, integrated circuit sleeves are manually loaded to testing and marking machinery. Due to the limitations inherent in this method, an individual operator must then be assigned to the individual testing or marking machine such that the operators attention is devoted fully to that single machine. For example, on a typical testing machine, an operator can supply approximately 24,000 integrated circuits per hour maximum. On existing laser marking machinery, the same 24,000 unit per hour maximum applies. Based upon a typical hourly wage of approximately $6,00 per hour, a single operator per testing or marking machine costs the manufacturer about $12,480.00 per year plus benefits which, considering four operators for four such machines, would result in a total cost of slightly less than $50,000 per year plus benefits. Therefore, a single operator on a single tester or laser marking machine utilizing the present manual loading of integrated circuit sleeves results in a unit labor cost of about $.25 per thousand units.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to provide an automated method for inserting integrated circuit sleeves to subsequent testing and marking machinery. With such an automated sleeve handler, a single operator could be assigned to operate up to six such machines. Under such a scenario, a single operator could run tests on approximately 144,000 units per hour. Moreover, given the fact that existing laser marking equipment is operator limited at 24,000 units per hour, one operator could, by attending four typical laser marking machines, produce 160,000 units per hour inasmuch as the laser marker is capable of operating on four laser markers utilizing an automated sleeve handling system, the unit labor cost could be substantially reduced to a level of $.0375 per thousand units. Moreover, by eliminating the necessity for the other three operators for the additional equipment which may therefore be handled by a single operator, in excess of $37,000 per year may be saved in salary and benefits. This savings alone is significantly greater than the cost of such automated sleeve handling equipment.